Between tool and content: How accessible content is really created

Digital learning and performance content should provide guidance, facilitate work, and make knowledge accessible. For everyone. But this is precisely where a crucial question arises in practice: Can content be used and potentially understood by everyone—or only by part of the target group?

Accessibility is often understood as a feature of a system. But even the best technology can only enable what is consciously designed. The tts performance suite creates the conditions—whether content becomes accessible is decided during authoring.

Accessibility describes the goal of designing digital content in such a way that it can be perceived, understood, and used by as many people as possible—regardless of individual limitations. Among other things, this is based on the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) of the World Wide Web Consortium.

The WCAG define four basic principles:

• Perceptibility: Content can be seen, heard, or otherwise perceived.
• Operability: Functions can be used without a mouse, for example, using a keyboard.
• Comprehensibility: Content and interactions are logical and intuitive.
• Robustness: Content works reliably with different devices and assistive technologies.

These principles can be supported technically. However, whether they are fulfilled in terms of content is determined by the design of the content itself. Accessibility is not only evident in the code, but above all in the structure, language, contrasts, and descriptions.

Accessible content requires a stable technical foundation. The tts performance suite provides this foundation. Key technical requirements are ensured on the system side. Content can be created consistently, published across media, and enriched with features such as readability, keyboard operability, and alternative text.

The role of the tts performance suite is clearly defined: it enables authors to work in an accessible manner. It structures, supports, and secures. What it cannot do is make decisions about content. This deliberate distinction is crucial for understanding the following sections.

A tool can create framework conditions. It can set specifications, provide functions, and reduce technical errors. What it cannot do is understand content.

A system does not know which information is crucial for understanding. It does not automatically recognize whether a design is accessible to all user groups. Such decisions are not made in the system.

They are made during authoring.

Accessibility is created where content is consciously structured, clearly formulated, and designed from the user's perspective. The tts performance suite provides the technical capabilities for this. How these capabilities are used is up to the individual.

In everyday life, it is particularly clear that accessibility does not happen automatically.

An example from e-learning: An animation explains a process. If it is exclusively visual, its content remains hidden from blind people. If, on the other hand, it is described in parallel using language, genuine access is created. The tool provides the function. The decision is made by the human being.

Another common example is contrast. A tool allows the free choice of colors. Technically, everything is correct. However, if text is designed with too little contrast, it remains difficult or impossible to read for many people. The software does not prevent this decision. It makes it possible. The responsibility lies with the authoring.

The situation is similar with image descriptions. Alternative text can be added – or left blank. However, the decisive factor is quality.

Does the description help a person with visual impairments to understand the content or complete a task? Or does it merely describe the obvious?

The tts performance suite offers the function of storing alternative texts. Whether these texts actually add value depends on the content decision.

Accessibility is not created here by the presence of a function, but by its conscious use.

Purchasing software that can create accessible content is an important step. However, it is not the end of the process.

The tts performance suite creates the conditions for accessible content. It structures, supports, and provides technical security. It does not make content decisions. And it cannot.

Accessibility is created where content is specifically designed, images are described meaningfully, and information is clearly structured. Not automatically. But during authoring.

Anyone who wants to create accessible content should therefore not only ask which tool is used, but above all how content is designed.